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| Blissful Rehansh |
They say that deep down; every girl wants to be a mother in the earnest. But do men think that way? No way, at least not in my case.
But once you father a child, the feeling is awesome. Back in the late pregnancy, my wife would whisper to me to touch her lower abdomen in order to feel the movement of our future child. And I have seen a lot of pre-partum photography of parents-to-be couples where the husband shows a gentle gesture of fatherhood by kissing or keeping hands on balloon-belly. I felt that touching a swollen belly was quite gross, so I didn’t opt for it. You don't love someone who you have never ever seen because he or she is not yet a person existing in the outer world. But you care and you are concerned. You are still skeptical to know whether that is love or just a concern.
No photo-shoot and no Disney-style baby shower celebration, the child is born: a son. We take him as the blessings from the lord Vishnu.
While the mother is yelling in travail inside a labor room, father, overladen with anxiety and nervousness in the waiting hall, grapples just to breathe. It just feels like the world is exploding apart because for a normal delivery to take place, with mother and child’s health good it requires a lot of coincidences happening at once. And only god can do that, and I thank him for that. So, here is to balance the stereotypical thinking that multi-factorial paternal emotional strain is also equally comparable to physical childbearing pain of a mother.
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| Rehansh never misses any camera opportunity (Posing after the ear-piercing) |
One day, I was babysitting my son who was 7 months. I declined supinely and my son was on my stomach. All of a sudden, he looked into my eyes. It was like more than a minute of continuous stare, so to speak. I was also staring him back in silence. After about a minute, tear drops welled down from both of his eyes. He started to make a soft peculiar sound the intensity of which increased to become a flat cry. The cry had overtones of despair. My eyes were also wet and I ruminated as to which feeling the child was crying so deeply inasmuch as there is yet a plethora of pains and perturbation lying in wait on the walks of life. But to see your child cry in your face from the beginning makes your heart rent. And that I bet. Being a parent is a real eye-opener to understand how much our parents love us. So, fatherhood – or broadly speaking parenthood – is a bliss that enables us to know the ulterior dimensions of human life.
I enjoy fondling his succulent cherry cheeks even though he kvetches in annoyance. For whatever reason he is crying, you just have to hold him high and walk to pacify him. When I hold him in my arms, my cheeks juxtaposed to his, he feels the lancinating pain over the skin due to my sparse beards and moves away. He thumps his face over mine when his nose itches. He cries when his underwears are wet with the pee and he strains with his eyes full in tears to start a poo.
So, when your son is growing to be a one year old child, of all things what makes your smile wide open is him doing something, well anything, for the first time. When he first smiles recognizing you or displays gestures of goodbye by waving a hand or signals that we should hold him up or speaks the first word of his life, we are showered with mind-boggling happiness that we keep sharing the incident whosoever we meet.
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| Beware! Rehansh eats anything that comes in his hand |
Well my son’s name is Rehansh Adhikary ( Rehansh means a part of Lord Vishnu) and I call him Ghanchaman because he eats whatever comes in his hand. For his age, he belongs to the fatter side of the bell-curve. He hardly managed to sit on his own only after completing 8 months for he has a plump body to take control over. Now he can drag the walker in the terrace to the direction he wants. He recognizes people and responds by smiling. He needs people around even when he is asleep because he senses by hovering hand intermittently to the sides and cries if there is no one. He is expecting to have milk-teeth so, at times, he grunts and squeezes something that is in his hand and chews over between gums.
I wish his cuteness never fades away. And I know as he will
grow older he will not be as angelic as he is right now because once he toddles
then everything in room will be in a mess. Now he can’t move except when kept
in a walker, so he can’t ruin anything or fall down somewhere and get injured. Yes, he is in his perfect age of being a lovely toy-like child.
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| Rehansh is happy when he is in walker |
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